Darklight
by Eternal Chronicler
Summary: The 12th Doctor follows a strange signature through the time vortex, landing in another alt universe again. Now he must explore what brought him there and how he'll get back to his own. Along the way he'll find himself making an unexpected ally that may set or change the course of his future forever. This is an AU between tale of 12 post Husbands of River Song/pre Mysterio episode.
1. Things of Nightmares

The sun passed over the horizon, leaving only a faint blue and purple hue on its skyline. The only sound that could be heard was that of the wind rustling through the trees. Traffic, if any, was very limited at this particular hour. The weather made for an early night inside for most people, the chill of disappearing winter still clinging to the air. However, that was not the case for everybody, some people were out until well after dark fell.

Normally this wasn't a bad thing, a person could go about their evening just fine without consequence, but for some, that just wasn't the case. Just like on this strange ominous sort of night, as the moon rose bloated in the deep blues, one such individual was walking along. Headphones in, their world outside aside from vaguely paying attention to where they were walking, was drowned out by the sounds of some sort of dubstep rhythm.

Where they were going was with purpose, but not so fast that they had to be in a hurry to their destination. So, naturally they passed each block with ease on their way to where they were going. Little did they realize that their world was about to be interrupted of course by something beyond their control. Suddenly they were brushed up against by someone. The person with the headphones, which come to find out was a lankly youthful adult male, came out of his revere by being startled a bit of course, long enough to realize that the other person that had accidently bumped into them and had walked on.

While still walking, they turned their gaze back towards their encounter, lifting an ear piece off their ear to only be met with a female voice saying a short sorry as they walked walked the opposing direction than them. In the end the person with the headphones didn't see much cause to fret over it, so he shrugged and continued on, letting the ear piece fall back on their ear.

Some time, and a few blocks later, the man found himself walking into a bar. Of course that in and of itself was nothing unusual, and one would probably be starting to think that is was going to just another normal hanging out with friends sort of night. For the most part this would be correct, however, what sort of tale with this be if it just were that simple. Of course, a few hours did pass by, and the man who had gone in had spent that time relaxing with people he knew that were there.

It wasn't until a few drinks and a couple karaoke songs after, that things started to take a stranger turn. Unbeknown to the man who had, had the music earlier while walking, was that the girl he had passed by. She had come into the joint herself. She had completely bee lined him out and had even gone directly up to him with purpose.

"You dropped this." the girl said with a sweet tone to her voice, holding out a phone to the man.

"Oh, um, thanks." he stated back, taking the phone, confused as to how he had lost it in the first place. He then looked at her strangely when she didn't walk away. "Is there something else?"

"Sorry." the girl stated shaking her head a bit. "It's just, you remind me of someone."

"Oh, well is that a good thing or a bad thing." the man mused with a small smile.

"Good." she smiled back awkwardly. "It was nice meeting you."

"Meh, why don't you come and sit down with us for a few," he flirted a bit noting more now that she was actually kind of pretty. "Rest yourself after having to come back all this way just to drop off a phone to me."

"Alright." she said warmly, and sat down with him and his friends, her long hair falling over her should. His friends said hello to her and began chattering again amongst themselves.

He hadn't thought to question how the girl even knew he had gone to that particular place. Then again most wouldn't think about it, brushing off as unusual as coincidence. In fact, they continued to casually talk afterwards for some time. By the end of the night, the man had passed from being coherent, to slightly not in shortorder. His friends had even left him after a couple hours of the girl being there, leaving the two of them to talk until closing.

She had obviously won the man's heart by a land slide, partially because he wasn't coherent enough to make logical decisions. When they got finally outside, he was tipsy enough to ask her to walk with him a bit. Of course she obliged and even took his arm in her own as they began to walk down the now nearly empty street. Talking some more, him more vibrantly than her, they managed to make their way as far as where the lights no longer touched the busiest parts of the business district of the downtown area.

It was then that she suddenly jerked him off the main path and into a secluded alley where there was no signs of life at all. The young man didn't even know what was happening. At first he thought all she wanted was to make out or something by the way she grabbed him and kissed him on the lips passionately. However, it was from that sudden change of pace from talking to randomly kissing, that the man had met his match and made the last mistake he ever would.

Why, because the moment she had gotten that close, was the moment he had been able to look straight into the eyes of the girl he had been caught off guard by. At first he had thought how pretty her eyes were, but then, after only a few moments, he saw something else in those eyes. Instead of seeing the depths of color and dark pupils, he saw himself, his face, inside those round orbs. It wasn't just any face either, it was one that was left in a silent scream for help. His own eyes going momentarily wide with fright and life, before they went pale and dull along with his complexion as if ever ounce of his being was drained from him.

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 **Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Doctor Who or its canon. Only the original characters and original content are mine.**

 **A/N: I know this is a short chapter, but I hope you enjoyed it. I shall have more to come soon. Pease read and review!**


	2. A Different View

Serena woke with a jolt, sweat beading down her face as she breathed in and out hard while she laid there, her head re planted onto the pillow behind her. It had all been just a bad nightmare. She was safe and warm inside her own bed, yet the cold feeling that clung to her skin still didn't alleviate the fact that it had felt so real.

She gave a sigh of relief though, letting the tension and the dream slip away like a discarded vale. Her heart, which had sped up in pace, began to slow down again. Closing her eyes momentarily it allowed her to gain her composure before turning onto her side to check the time via her phone. It was only six a.m. as far as her blurry eyes could tell, and she didn't have to be anywhere until at least ten.

Frustrated, she laid the phone back down, face down onto the mattress and rolled back onto her back to try and get back to sleep for at least another hour. She could take a cab if she had to, was the thought she mused. However, after only twenty minutes of just lying there staring up into the dark nothing, she finally decided to get up, having found going back to sleep just to be a fruitless endeavor. Her brain was already ten steps ahead of her body.

Flourishing the covers off with an irritable yank, she turned her body so she could sit up and get off the comfy respite that was her bed. Still weary faced and blurry eyed, she made her way to start the rest of the day. Of course her vision was so bad at the moment she practically stumbled through the dark room just to get to the door. Why she hadn't put a lamp and stand right next to her bed, she didn't know. Though, now that her grumpy mind was thinking about it, she was half way considering it even though it probably would blind her more just turning it on in the mornings.

Finally she made it to the door and opened it, leaving a dark hallway to loom in front of her. Because her mind was still fuzzy, it almost made her jump scare a bit when she saw a shadow that looked out of place just ever so slightly or so she thought. This encouraged her to try and quickly make her way to the bathroom to turn on a light and shut the door at the same time. Once inside she leaned momentarily against the door itself to try and get her nerves to settle.

 _It's all just in your head. Stop thinking about it_ , was the thought she tried to convince herself with to re calm herself down. Staring at herself in the mirror, which in her case was not as quite an easy task and one with think, she tried to gauge what sort of day this day was going to bring. Squinting a bit at her image to try and see it more clearly, she could tell that it was going to be one of those days, emphasis on those, which meant probably would turn up bad somehow. Just what she needed, a bad day on top of a bad night's sleep. Clearly she was batting zero at this point.

Walking up to the sink she turned it on and began to cleanse her face and hands. The warm water rolling down her face from a wet wash cloth she had grabbed had felt good on her forehead, eyes, and cheeks; but alas it did nothing for her visual acuity though most days she'd hope it would. No her vision was permanently stuck in a state of slight blur, as well as near sightedness. She could barely see more than twenty to thirty feet in front of her most days, with most things at least halfway decently defined, but what she could see allowed her to get around still quite nicely.

Granted, the lenses she'd put in after washing her face would help with some of that problem, but it still never gave her the acuity she needed to do some things most average humans could do. Luckily she was resourceful and could manage her way around that issue for the most part. There were just some days, like this one, where things were tougher than others.

After putting her contacts in, Serena blinked rapidly a few times at her still disheveled features, her now blue eyes staring back at her. Sadly she could not see the color unless she got really close to the mirror, but at least the sharpness was now there and that was what mattered. She didn't see the world as if swimming in the ocean with one's eyes open. Satisfied with at least that, she managed to work her way into brushing her hair, getting dressed, and eventually getting around to getting food from the kitchen.

By that point it had become eight in the morning. If she wanted to get to where she needed to be by ten, she was going to have to either leave on the go with her food, or just wait and cab it there. One was cheaper, but the other allowed for her to take more time. After checking her funds in a jar she kept for such things, she realized she had enough for a cab only or enough for a bus and maybe a lunch at her location later. Bus it was. So she made a quick bagel as best she could, grabbed her jacket, backpack, and her specialty cane just for people with vision loss like hers, and darted out the door to try and reach the bus just in time.

She had just barely made it with a few minutes to spare. Enough for her to catch her breath before having to board the bus. The moment the bus came and she was on, had paid the bus fare, she had made her way to find a seat. Cane still out to indicate her status she let what vision she did have note right away that the front seats were all taken. Unfortunately she could tell that they were all occupied. As far as she was concerned, by the way they were stare at her, she strongly assumed they were all able bodied lazy loafs, folks that clearly were not going to budge for her whether they could tell she needed the seat or not. Again it was going to be one of those days.

Not wanting to bother to tell any of the blank faced people sitting there in the kindest way possible to shove off, only because she felt a tad self-conscious, to let her sit in a spot purposefully designated for people with a disability, she instead just huffed an irritated sigh and tried to manage her way back to the back of the bus, casually whacking a few folks on either side with her cane, the same motion used to gauge her surroundings, however, in her case a way also to get a silent revenge on the jerks just sitting there like mindless sheep. Sadly as she reached the stairs that led to the second level the driver started to take off before she could sit down somewhere. She even almost stumbled and fell on her face as she clambered up the stairs to the second level.

Frazzled, Serena finally found a seat to plant herself in. It was moments like this that drowning out the world was for the best. Plugging in headphones to her phone she opened up the YouTube app on the screen after unlocking it, picked a song, and put the headphones on to blare away the stupid people, as she saw the situation as it was right at the moment because she was irritated, away. Music to her was like her life track, it pushed her through and past all the bull that she had to deal with on a constant basis. She was strong, she had to be and she knew it.

The ride to her destination from home was luckily a short one. Sadly it had left her to personally pay attention and guess as to when and where her stop would come up. Fortunately this route was one she took almost daily. So knowing the stop was a lot easier than if she hadn't been to a place before. The moment she reached the block of the stop itself, she pulled the line and began to stand before the bus even had stopped. Drivers in her town were not always keen on waiting for anyone, not even someone like herself unless rider was bound to a chair and then it was part of the driver's responsibility to help them get off. Otherwise, one was on their own.

Lurching forward as the bus came to a sharp halt, she vaulted herself forward towards the stairs, holding onto the railings that jutted up to the ceiling for support so she wouldn't go flying down them. Quickly she tried not to fumble down the stairs as she made her way to the back door and out it before the driver could start up the bus again and take off down the street.

Music still playing, she readjusted her bag on her shoulders and began to walk to the building yards away in front of her with purpose. She would have crossed the grass out of convenience instead of wandering around via the sidewalk, which took longer, but canes like hers were never good in grass. Hers had a rolling tip so it wasn't as much a bother, but instead she took the sidewalk just in case to make sure something else couldn't go wrong. Its white reflective surface swayed back and forth as it found its target to either side of her, trailing the grass instead as she took the long route to get to the main doors.

She honestly hated using the damn thing. She'd been raised up without one. It had only been more recently now that she was on her own and her sight was diminishing, that she he had, had to use a cane more often. In some causes though if she was feeling quite trite or self-conscious about it, she'd leave it at home so as not to share with the world that she was the way she was. This was the same case when she got just passed the parking lot. She began to fold it up. Familiar grounds meant she could much more easily navigate without the cumbersome object in hand.

The moment she reached the front door, she finished folding the cane and opened door just like any other student would and strolled inside like there was not a thing wrong with her at all. She was a college undergrad trying to make it in a competitive world. As she wandered through the main lobby, folks said hello to her. Some she could recognize right off the bat, others not so much, but none of them what one would call "close friends". She was on her way to her first class of the day. Monday's were notorious for the eye rolling, mind numbing, vocal groaning hard subjects like math, science, and or history. Sure there were some other classes littered in between as well, but all the same, the major classes on a Monday were usually the most complicated.

Yet she supposed she'd rather have a Monday annoyance than the same sort of classes on a Friday. That would have just ruin ones weekend. Finally though she made her way into the first classroom to await her doom for the next two or so hours. Others walked in right after her, but she paid no mind to them at this point. She was more focus on getting her small space ready. Serena got her things out that she'd need for class and then waited, her headphones and smartphone full of music now put away. Of course once class began, things would started turning into a better day hopefully.

Lecture was long and boring. It was hard to keep up with the professors ramblings and the stuff wrote on the board. To be honest, she didn't even pay attention to the board because she couldn't see it. So instead she'd wait for after class for the hopes that the instructor would have secondary notes she could gather if at all. Sadly the professor did not this day and it left her in a tad bit of a slump. Thankfully she had the memory of an elephant so to say, since an elephant quote unquote never forgets.

By noon after class was over, and she was able to rest her eyes a little, her day had gone from a miserable start to things were looking just a bit more up. Well aside from mounds of homework and lack of notes of course. She had gotten the lunch she wouldn't have been able to get if she had cabbed her way there, and had even had time to sit down and enjoy it before the next class started. She had three this particular day.

While eating the sandwich she'd bough along with a juice drink, she had tuned into watching slash listening to something on her phone. This always seemed to be quite the routine for her most days. Not that it was a bad thing. The time to herself just gave her more of a chance to decompress from a stressful class session, which for her was a good thing. It wasn't like she went out of her way to sit by herself, just no one usually was there that she did know when she was or they just didn't think about sitting with her, try as hard as she might to fit in.

Eventually lunch break was over and she had gone back to her routine of classes again until about four in the afternoon, which was when her third class got over. Again just another normal routine to her day. Of course Serena knew the looming of the return home on the bus was approaching, but she at least realized that was going to be an on the way home trip rather than an on the way out one. It meant she'd be going home and not have to deal with any more antics for the day.

The sheer moment the day was over, she had bolted off out the school campus' front door, pulling back out the cane she had, had earlier that day just long enough to deal with public transportation itself. She still really did not like carrying the thing even though she really needed it. It was like a big red flag saying hey I'm different, strange, weird, or whatever else she could think of. She was the only one at the stop too at least on the side she was looking to go.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem for her, being alone that was, she could easily hear the bus coming and flag it down. However, that feeling of it was going to be one of those sorts of days gut hunches came rolling back into her stomach when she did hear the bus approach. Like usual she walked out to signal down the driver, but either she had misinterpreted the stop, or the driver was being just one of those sorts of drivers. They completely passed her and kept right on going. Her ears even picking up the faintest chance that the driver actually sped up just out of sheer spite to get as far away from her as quick as possible.

"Jerk." She muttered bitterly to herself. Why did she have to live in such a miserable town again? This was the thought in her mind. Oh right, because she couldn't afford to live anywhere else. The town itself wasn't really all that bad, at least not as bad as she believed it to be, in the emotional state she was in right now. it was decent sized, not the greatest of course being something out in the middle of the brown prairie lands of a state that some people believed still rode horse and buggy in, but it at least had more than a one stop light intersection. It was just small enough to have community but large enough that you could easily be forgotten.

She was going to have to walk home at this rate seeing as that same driver was going to be probably on for at least another few hours she was certain. Which meant she wouldn't probably get picked up at all because the driver was being a royal insert colorful metaphor here type of individual. With a sigh, Serena shouldered her backpack and began to walk with her cane still out. It was going to be quite a trek from the college to where she lived a few miles away. Each mile could take her between a half hour to an hour or so.

Her mood had been so bruised. She normally could listen to music while walking, but today was just not one of those days. Besides her phone would have been dead before she got there. Instead she let the sounds of the city fill her ears. The real heartbeat of the universe. It some ways it was soothing, in others it was strange and kind of awkward. The only tones being that of car wheels rolling by in the distance and of course the wind whipping through still dead trees and grass.

Of course she could also hear her cane rolling along the ground in a gliding whoosh sort of fashion, she was going to need that sound with how cruddy her vision was being today. She had decided to stay off the main avenue through town, a three lane that went both directions making it a total of six hectic lanes. Less traffic made for easier audio cues to cross with. However, going the back residential roads meant for easier targeting by trouble makers, and for a girl walking alone, impaired in vison or not, that was a bad thing.

Sadly she got turned around a bit while figuring out her way home, finding herself going down a street she wasn't quite as familiar with as most. It was starting to fade in daylight too, the sun still starting to set around six p.m. or so. The bus that had passed her earlier had not helped what so ever. Sadly, unable to see as far ahead of herself as she would like to have, she began to feel uneasy again. Her dream creeping back into her mind once more. It had still felt so real, but why? Thinking about it made her pick up her pace anyway to try and reach home faster. Unfortunately it made her trip up more just trying to reach her safe haven.

Luckily she had some great skill at keeping balance mostly when she wanted to, even if she found herself connecting a foot or two on a gigantic crack in the sidewalk as she sped along. She could have face planted and still kept going, damning whatever consequences may have come. What really sucked was she almost got hit by a car because of how fast she was trying to get home and the fact the driver had not stopped to let her pass. She swore under her breathe at that, wondering if the person was not paying attention or was just rude.

She inevitably found herself completely lost and had to stop for a few moments. Serena had to get her bearings. Yet the moment she stopped moving she felt more like almost breaking down. Biting her lower lip lightly to try and stop a flood of emotion from welling up inside her she frantically looked around. She had no idea where she had ended up and it frightened her.

Serena knew though no one was going to help her, she was all alone, so she had to gather in what her surroundings were. Even as the dark was starting to settle in. She closed her eyes for a moment to try and calm herself down, letting her ears do all the searching for her. If she could maybe hear the sounds of the main avenue, she could figure out how to get back there maybe. Sadly the sounds of the cars in the distance were all the same. The rest of the sound was all wind blowing through the tress.

That was not helpful at all. She stood there trying to think. She couldn't afford a cab, there were no buses now. There had to be some way she could get home. Just as she was trying to figure that out a sudden pressure change happened and the wind began to pick up in a slightly different direction. It forced her to have to close her eyes again to keep flying dirt from the street to billow up into them and make it so she really couldn't see. It was while she was doing this that she began to hear another sound, one that sort of sounded like a flag scrapping and beating against a metal pole a bit, but a tad more distorted than that, and maybe just a little too rhythmical. What did she know though, for all she knew the wind could have been fluttering a flag somewhere and in rhythm.

If that was the case though, she might actually know where she had gone wrong and got lost. Parks had flags and she'd been plenty of times to a park before. Turning with a swell of hope inside. She started her way in search of the sound as it seemed to get louder and louder until finally she did stumble out onto a street corner where ironically park ended up lying. The sound had stopped of course, but now at least she was able to find her bearings much better.

It wasn't safe to pass through the park, but she at least was able to wander around its border to its other side. Seeing something familiar in the darkness, she was able to get back onto the right street and continue the rest of the trek home, the sound that had saved her now only a stored memory in the back of her mind.

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 **Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Doctor Who or its canon. Only the original characters and original content are mine.**

 **A/N: I felt the need to write this type of scene because ironically I believe on some level all people can relate to life struggles. I wanted to show also a world that most don't get to explore, which is a relate able topic we can see everywhere in today's media. Also as you can probably guess this scene is part of the foundation of what is to come for our 12th Doctor. Please read and review!**


	3. Unexpected Visitor

Eventually Serena made it home in one piece even though the whole entire time she felt watched or followed whether she was or not. Her heart could be heard racing in her ears the whole way it seemed. It was as if the adrenaline rush she got pushed her home better than she had previously. It sure had pushed that whole bad day from her mind for a while.

The moment she got inside Serena locked the door behind her, she then let her bag slide off her shoulders onto the floor as she let the door be her momentary respite to catch her breath. It wasn't easy hoofing it back to the house after all. Now all she wanted was to rest, maybe take a soaking bath, and call it an early evening. Was that so much to ask for from the universe, just one simple little thing. The moment she was able to, she moved herself away from the door and towards the kitchen to start herself a pot of tea. Tea always helped, that or coffee. Nighttime relaxing though was best with the prior.

She started the pot, preparing the water to make some warm chai tea. Once that was started, she made her way to the bathroom to start a bath for herself. Tea and tub, a perfect combo to end a really blah Monday. It was probably why she liked the comic strip Garfield so much and loved cats. Garfield hated Mondays and well cats were just lazy dozy, cuddly, adorable fluff balls. While waiting for both bath and bliss to prepare, she went to her little make shift office den area to check her mail before hitting the hay. Her den area was littered with fandom stuff. From posters of star wars and star trek, to bobbles of Supernatural, Sherlock, and more. Models of space ships and action figures sat on shelves above her computer desk including a model of the Enterprise, the Millennium Falcon, a tie fighter, AT-AT, action figures of Obi Wan, R2-D2, Vader, Gandalf, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, as well as some of the different incarnations of a very familiar time lord plus a collectors model of the TARDIS, and much more.

It had been quite obvious that to any friend who did visit her home, would find themselves having nerd thrown up all over them. Every person had to have their hobbies though, hers just happened to be being a closet nerd that never shared it with most anyone but those closest to her. Was she a hard core crazy super fan, hell no! Not even in the remotest sense. She enjoyed a fandom passionately, but not to the point she'd make a mess of herself in public over it. Nerdy she was, crazy she was not. She sadly looked at her collection.

 _Why can't I be like you guys? Sure you've all probably have had bad days, heck bad years even, but at least what you lot do…er…have done…is worth at least something. Me on the other hand….what have I got to show for myself….what have I done….what am I worth_ , she sadly mused. She closed her likes like it was some ritual she did and went back and forth along the rows of figures pointing at them as if choosing at random and finally stopped, taking one of the figures off the shelf.

Before she opened her eyes, she felt the smooth figure in her hands, its curves, its edges. She could tell just by touch alone who it was. It made her smile just ever so slightly. She then opened her eyes and stared at it. Ironically it being one of the Doctor's incarnations. Not that she took a particular strong interest in that character, but she did envy the companions a bit in that show. Their lives so enriched, yes of course in danger all the time, but still enriched by someone coming along, sweeping them off their human feet, and taking them on wild adventures into the unknown, but not because it would be to just show off the universe, it was so the guide, the Doctor, could share something special, something more…intimate with them.

She often wished she could have had a friend like that. Most the people she knew, they were friends, but she never had anyone who would just give her a chance, a time of day to prove herself to be more than just a girl with an eye condition that needed some sort of kiddy gloves with because they thought her to be weak, fragile, or incapable of doing anything amazing. She was smart and creative. She knew this, deep down inside herself, but what stung her most was no one else really could.

Tilting her head to the side to gauge in the figures features, her heart began to feel like a leaded weight. As far as her mind considered who was she honestly kidding? She was nobody, a dead weight on society, and that was to be her role and place for the rest of her life. Secluded and alone, no matter how hard she tried to be free. Serena didn't want to be alone forever, she yearned for something, anything to give her that chance. She just hoped that, that dream wouldn't come too late one these days.

"Help me find your strength….." she stated, sighing a bit with a choked back sob.

She ran a thumb along the statues face and up past the hairline a few times like the way one would rub a worry stone for sake of easing one's mind or a rabbits foot in hopes of good luck to come ones way before she put the figure back up on the shelf. She then murmured, "I really could use a friend right now."

Life for Serena had been hard from the day she was born, but thoughts progressively only got worse over the years. Bullies in school, lack of support from home, no friends really to speak of. The whole nine yards, it left her an empty emotional scar just waiting for the end to come and seek her out. The only thing that seemed to kept her afloat it seemed was the fictional friends she had on T.V. or at least that was what she believed anyway. Sure she had a few friends, real friends growing up, but most of those friends had moved away after high school, and none of them seemed to keep in touch. Her parents had thought it was best Serena went to college, make a life for herself, be like everyone else and do all the things the rest of the rat race was doing. Like getting a job, getting married, having kids; the typical white picket fence Pleasantville life pretty much. Then of course there was her brother Ashton. Out of anyone he'd probably been the only rock she had been able to lean upon over the years. However, even then her brother was lofty and became distant eventually, having ran off from home the moment he could, leaving her alone to deal with their parents since.

The college thing she had been cool with, she did have dreams after all, some honest good ones. It was just all rest that bothered her, the pressure of everything else that made the good stuff seem just so moot some days. Why did she have to be like everyone else? Why did the things she didn't like being, have to feel, or be so different and unwelcome that she had to do because it was supposedly the right thing to do, but the things she wanted to be different about she couldn't because it didn't fit in with the social norm. It was a tough load to handle and a part of her just wanted to get away for a while to sort it all out.

She finally turned on her computer, her magnifier coming up quite quickly after the main screen booted up. Serena proceeded to check her mail. There was nothing of importance luckily, and there were no messages from any online people she knew either. All was quiet and she supposed it was just better that way, at least this night anyway. Content on at least that note, she turned off the computer and went back to her bath water and tea.

The moment both were ready she make sure one was turned off so it wouldn't overflow and the other turned off so she wouldn't burn the house down. Quickly she made her Chai and vanished her way into the bathroom for a relaxing soak, and relax she did. Serena drank down her tea and even almost fell asleep right there in the tub. She had zone for at least an hour before realizing the water was now cold and she was pruned. However what was most disturbing was the sounds she thought she heard outside the bathroom walls.

At first it was one thud, then another, then the rustling of metal on metal could be heard. There had been someone in the house! The question though was how? Carefully Serena quietly got out and grabbed a towel to quickly dry with. Putting on comfy clothes afterwards that she conveniently kept in the bathroom every night, since she was not about to go outside the bathroom in only her birthday suit and just a towel. She grabbed her brush out of the drawer not only to use to eventually brush her hair hopefully with but also to possibly use as a blunt end weapon to take on the person who broke in.

Quietly she opened the door, listening to the sounds as she wandered out, brush raised at the ready just in case. Her steps were quiet, slow, and steady. Honestly she was a ninja, even her brother would say so. Serena could tell exactly where the sound was coming from too, the kitchen. Whoever they were, they shouldn't have broken in, seeing as she was well trained in some martial arts. Not quite a black belt, but she could land a person on their backside if given the right chance or if all else failed, kick them where it counted so she could ran far enough away to call for help.

The moment she got to the corner of the kitchen she, whipped silently around its corner, but before she could completely beat her intruder down, she ended up tripping over something that had been left in the middle of the floor that wasn't there before she was pretty sure. The one thing that could be noted was that both she and the person who broke in, screamed like Timon and Pumba from the lion king by the way the sound reverberated.

After a few moments the two finally stopped and she realized who it was that had broken in. It wasn't just some random intruder, it was someone familiar to her.

"Ashton!" she squeaked in a high voice filled with shock.

"Yea…." he began, then added with a hint of teasing sarcasm. "Nah, I'm Santa Clause, Merry Christmas and a happy bah humbug to you too."

"What are you doing here?!"

"Wait why do you have a brush in your hand like you were about ready to attack? What were you planning on doing with it, prettify me to death?"

"No I was just…..never mind! You didn't answer my question. What are you doing here? Answer me or so help me I will rain this brush down on you worse than the fight to Mordor!"

"Okay okay, geez, you don't have to get all snarly at me princess." Ashton scoffed a bit and then flinched only just a little when the air of the brush went right near him and hit him in the shoulder. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Answers….now." she snarled a bit more impatiently.

"Well I was looking for your best stuff to drink, but alas you have none." he stated.

"That's cause the good stuff is usually too expensive." she grumbled.

"Plus I was hungry, can't help it if I got the munchies." he stated nonchalantly.

"How did you even get in?" Serena ask, actually confused.

"Well I would have used the hide a key, but you didn't have one." Ash said with a shrug. "So instead I just picked the lock. Ow! Did you really have to hit me with that again?!"

"Yes!" she stated immediately after. "You could have called, texted, sent a letter, hell even a postage card saying 'Hey I'm coming your way can I stop by?'. No instead you had to break into my house, rummage through my things, leave whatever it is you brought in here on my floor!"

"It's my bag and-" he started.

"I don't care if it's the rocks from your head! You could have….you could have at least tried…."

"I…." he began but the stopped as he could tell just by hearing her voice and breathing alone that she was in distress over the matter. "I'm sorry."

Her brother looked down ashamed a bit. Seeing her sister upset really brought him back to reality a bit. It seemed awkward, but a part of him instinctively wanted to go and hug her just a bit to try and make her feel at least a little better for intruding on her night. So he did wander over to her and pulled her into his arms. She resisted at first, but her brother though younger than her, was now a days much taller and a bit stronger than her, so he was able to gently keep her from pulling away long enough to get her to settle down and hug her properly. Eventually after a few moments of estranged silence together he said, "I should probably just go right?"

"No." she said into his shoulder, feeling a bit more relaxed. The bath and tea now was a waste, but she could make at least some more tea before bed. She didn't hate her brother, she was just mad at him. The thing she didn't want to fully admit to, was that now that he was there, she wanted him to stay.

"You sure, I mean I did kinda just barge in and that." he admitted.

"No." she shook her head and finally pulled away from Ash. "You can stay."

"Really?" he stated feeling a little better himself. "I can make it up to you."

"How?" she asked.

"Hold on, let me check my pockets." he rummaged and found what looked like a candy in his pocket. "Ah hah here we go. How about this?"

"No thanks." she said shaking her head and then thought for a moment.

"Mkay, whatever." he stated and put it away. "So, how long are we lookin' at? Just tonight? Just a few days? A few weeks?"

"I think I know how you can pay me." Serena offered.

"Oh?" he looked intrigued.

"Can you clean?" she mused a small smirk crossed her face.

"Yea, if need be. Of course I can, I'm OCD about remember."

"Cook?"

"Maybe, though the last time I tried…" he thought about it and then decided better against it. "Never mind forget I said that."

"Well I think as long as you can help keep things clean, maybe cook a meal or two with supervision, maybe do laundry and garbage once in a while, oh and no lighting up in this house, you can stay here as long as needed I guess. Why do you need a place to stay anyway?"

"Damn, well you're no fun. The BF kicked me to the curb and we'll just leave it at that." he lightly grumped a blah tone.

"BF….right." she didn't sound completely convinced.

"So things didn't go completely to plan as I hoped." he admitted.

"Clearly." she stated dryly as she put the brush down on the table and walked into the kitchen to make some more tea for herself. "Want some tea, I'm making another pots worth, seeing as the last one was scared out of me by you."

"Uh, sure. I guess.' he answered a little unsure if he wanted to drink tea. "Can I at least have something to eat with it? Still got the munchies ya know."

"Fine, I'll make you a sandwich." she gave in. "Just…go put your stuff in the spare room so I, nor yourself, kill ourselves on it…again."

"Maybe you again, but me, nah I'm Daredevil." he teased. "Besides I didn't want to put it anywhere else just in case. Wanted to make sure I could re find it."

"Uh huh, you couldn't at least have put it more up against the wall or under the table or something?" Serena gave a skeptical look.

"Sorry?" he offered. "I'll go move it. Don't get your royal undies in a bunch."

Before he could possibly get smacked with his sisters brush again, Ash went and took his stuff to the spare room across from hers. The room had a small twin in it and drawers. The thing looked barely used, which wasn't surprising in the slightest. He set his things down on the bed with a whamp sound and looked around the semi tiny space before giving a shrug of approval before heading back out to the kitchen.

"You know, I was wondering. Why don't you have indicators for stuff? I couldn't find anything in this kitchen." he stated as he entered.

"Because I don't need them." she gave, emphasizing on need by extending it.

"I hear you talking, but all I hear is wah wah wah…internalized ableism….blah blah blah….I sound just like mom and dad. I really just want to be like everybody else." Ash said in an almost mocking tone, a hand flapping up and down in a fashion like a pair of lips talking. He was so wrapped up in his tease though that he didn't notice her swiftly grab the brush again and smack him with it. "Ow! Come on! I'm fragile!"

"Then stop giving me hell." she stated. "You know I'd really like to use this for its designated purposes rather than swat you with it right."

"Meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh…" he mocked again, laughing as she tried to swat him again but this time he caught her wrist and turned her into him and began to tickle her until she let go of the brush.

"Damn you Ashton!" she laughed herself as she wiggled free. "Brat."

"Hah! I'm now the lord of the brush! One brush to rule them all!" he stated waving it in the air, pulling it away from her as she tried to jump and get it. "Nope!"

"Ashton!" she whined.

"Never!" he retorted.

"Give…me….my…brush!" she continued to try and reach for it. Ash turned to try and get away, but Serena tackled him from behind and they stumbled, both giggling into the living room. Eventually both fell over on the couch and continued to wrestle before Serena finally gave in out of tiredness.

"Give?" Ash asked with a grin.

"Yeah….give." she stated with a sigh as she laid a head on her brothers chest. "Eh, I missed you jerk."

"Mmm, I missed you to …bitch." he said honestly poking her nose then handed the brush back. "Here."

Serena took the brush and laid it on the coffee table, she was too comfortable at the moment to move or brush her hair for that matter. She could feel Ash's hand begin to run through her hair, which started to make her more relaxed and sort of sleepy. She was still going to have her second cup of tea though, but just a few minutes snuggling her younger brother wouldn't kill her. For a while they just lounged there in silence.

"You know I love you. Really I'm not trying to nag you or be mean. I'm not mom and dad you know. But sooner or later you're going have to face this. I mean, I get it, it sucks, but it's not just going to go away no matter how much either of us want it to some days. You just got to keep your head up and keep moving. I really am sorry I didn't stay. I just, I needed to find myself, who I was my own way. You can understand right?"

"Yeah." she nodded and hugged him, it was hard, but she'd try for him. "Where did you go?"

"To Cali." he stated with a shrug. "Almost made it onto one of them talent shows, The Voice. Would have probably made it all the way too…..though thinking about it now...I probably shouldn't have went on stage all tripped out."

"I can't believe you did that." she stated with a small laugh as she scolded him, burying her face into his chest, embarrassed for him.

"Yeah, not my most shining moment I supposed." he mused, running a hand through her hair again. "But now that I am here, I promise I will do my best to try and change my ways. And I won't try and abandon you again. Okay?"

"Okay." She booped his nose finally back and grinned before finally getting the strength to tear herself away from her brother long enough to go get herself and her brother a cup of tea. She had already made the sandwich so she brought both out eventually and put a cup and plate down in front of Ash. She then sat down next to him and curled up into his side as she clung to her own cup of tea. She decided for them to sit and watch something for a little while, while they drank tea and cuddled.

Later on that night both clambered into their respective beds. Ash dozed off right away, she could hear his light snoring coming muffled through the wall. She on the other hand found herself drifting off into what she thought was going to be a dreamless sleep and for a while it was, but as midnight rolled around, she began to toss and turn. The dreams and nightmares having returned to haunt her once more with vivid images of things she could not quite understand…yet.

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Doctor Who or its canon. Only the original characters and original content are mine.  
**

 **Special Thanks: I should have probably put this in in the first chapter but oh well. I want to give a special thanks to my roommates who have pushed me through the edits and inspiration for my writings, including this one. This story is to honor you guys.**

 **A/N: Don't worry folks the 12th Doctor will be appearing fairly soon! Within at least the next chapter or so. I'm sure everone's curious as to what the thing was from chapter one that happened and what they are, we'll find out here soon enough! I hope this chapter is as much a sort of feel good chapter as i thought it was. I felt like there needed to be an uplift before all the fun crazy happens. Plus I love to try and prove my own characters wrong, silly head canon I know. But I'm sure we all have to have that one person out there we find ourselves wanting to lean on for support in our lives. Please read and review!**


	4. Signs

The next morning, at around 5 or 6 a.m., Serena woke up to the sounds of noise. It practically startled her awake, until she was able to gauge where it was coming from and who was making the noise. The sound of a vacuum worked its way back and forth somewhere down the hall from her room, probably the living room itself. It was matched along with a voice that she knew all too well, Ash. She couldn't quite tell what he was singing at the moment, but she was more than half tempted to find out.

Getting up, she stretched out her tiredness and made her way to the door still in pajamas. Opening the door she made her way down the hall to see what her brother was up to. She noted as she reached the living room, that her brother's back was to her as he was vacuuming the floor. Now that she was out there, she could distinctly smell food cooking as well. That seemed dangerous, her brother cooking, but then again she had almost forgotten her brothers cooking capabilities. Hearing the song he was singing, she snickered at him. Especially when his voice went high a couple times on some notes. Her brother could sing, but not with headphones on, clearly.

The way he was shaking his butt like he just didn't care because he believed no one was there to watch him, just made Serena almost die inside. Her brother was a royal dork. Oh if only she had grabbed her phone to video the whole shenanigans that would have been priceless. Grinning she crept up behind her brother, hoping to be a brat and spook him just a little. Spook him she did. He was so engrossed into his singing that when she poked him in the sides he didn't just yelp, he sang slash screamed a note of a song as he dropped the vacuum and ripped off his headphones to whirl around at her.

"What the hell….oooo." he exclaimed before realizing that her sister was giggling so loudly at him that it made him blush. "Uh, hi. Morning. Sorry if I woke you."

"You didn't wake me. Okay well maybe sort of did but eh." Serena stated through the fit of giggles she was throwing. She even tried covering her mouth to try and stifle it as well as stifle a waking yawn. "I would have had to be up soon anyway."

"I was just ….yeah. Um, trying to ya know, do my part and all." Ash rambled. "Just though I'd do it as a thank you. For letting me stay."

"Oh Ash…." she still snickered and hugged him. "You didn't have to do that. You're such a dork, but thanks anyway."

"Your welcome." he said bemused, he could tell she must have been feeling better after a night's sleep.

"You still are silly though," she couldn't stop giggling. "I swear, you sounded like a five year old school girl ripping off a band aid."

"Shut up, I did not." he pouted.

"Sure you did." Serena retorted.

"Did not." Ash pouted more and gave her a pathetic stare.

"Okayyy, fine. I was only teasing." she mused. "What are you cooking?"

"Eggs, bacon, the usual morning foods." Ash shrugged. "I was just about to go check on the bacon before you spoopified the hell out of me."

"Spoopified? What the heck does that even mean?" she scoffed.

"I don't know, I just….made it up okay!" Ash said hastily.

"What, did I spook you so bad you almost pooed yourself is that it?" Serena smirked.

"Oh hush you." Ash returned. "Why don't you go pretty yourself or something. Go do whatever it is normal girls do. All that frilly foo foo crap or whatever. So I can get breakfast done."

"I don't frilly foo foo." she said wrinkling her nose. "I'm not one of those sorts of girls."

"Okay well," he thought. "Go take a shower then. At least do that. By the time you done getting your sleepy looking face ready, food should be done."

"Yeah, sure, okay." she stated, dragging out the word a bit dramatically. "I'll go get ready so I can leave you with your girly singing so you don't feel all embarrassed."

"Shut up!" Ash reddened.

"It's true and you know it." Serena smirked. "I promise, I won't tell anyone."

"Right." Ash huffed. "Whatever."

"Oh don't be a grumpy goose. I'm going. Just don't burn the house down because of me distracting you. Go on." she said and then walked off down the hall.

A shower and a steamy bathroom later, Serena was more awake and ready for the day. By the time she came back out from the warm room, the food was ready and the vacuuming was done. Her brother making food and doing the vacuuming made her heart all warm and fuzzy. She joined him at the table and stared at the food. It looked better than she had expected. Especially the fact that not everything was labeled in the kitchen.

"You're lucky I'm clever and can figure out some of the stuff without labeling." he stated smugly.

"Right." she said rolling her eyes just a bit. "It does look good though. I will admit. I just hope it tastes as good as it looks."

"Well if not I can make it up to you with maybe a cup of coffee or something and a sandwich at some fast food place, okay." Ash said in a cocky response. He could have made a mistake on his own, but he'd never admit. He then reached out towards her plate to try and grab it, "Orrrr, I could just eat it?"

"Hands off Daredevil!" she slapped his hand. He recoiled trying to escape her attack.

"Ow!" he yelped failing to escape.

"Well, that's what you get for trying to steal my breakfast! But, about the coffee and food elsewhere if this doesn't work, fair." she said in approval, then took a bite of food. Luckily the food itself was good, but the coffee that had been brewed, was something left to be desired. Serena wrinkled her nose at how weak it was. "Bleh, the coffee could use a power up."

"Yeah, sorry about that. My partner before coming here only had a simple machine. Basically a pop and go sort of deal. You though, yours is super complicated, so I had to figure something else out."

"You used the microwave?" she asked.

"No." he stated. "Tea Kettle, and before you start, I know it's really redneck or whatever. I did it as carefully as I could. Wasn't easy though. I could still try and make another batch?"

"I could have said that was very British, but…" she shrugged then took another drink, finding the grain of the coffee hitting her lips. She cringed again, "Nah I'm good."

"Suit yourself." he shrugged and continued to eat his food.

The two of them finished their food more in silence. Just because they were siblings, did not mean moments could become slightly awkward. Afterwards, Serena got her things ready to go to classes while her brother cleaned up the mess that breakfast had made. Just before she was about to head out the door though, her brother went and grabbed his own things, like his jacket and cane.

"What are you doing?" Serena inquired.

"I figured I could walk with you." he stated, tugging his jacket a bit to straighten it out.

"I'm going to classes. You do realize that right." she said with justification.

"So?" Ash pushed.

"I'm not five you know, I can walk to the bus myself." Serena scoffed.

Ash gave a teasing taken aback stare, "Well then I don't have to go with you, and I don't have to possibly get you a better cup of coffee. Besides what if I want to walk just because I want fresh air hmm."

"Fine, but I was only teasing." she pouted.

"So was I." Ash nudged and then laughed. "Seriously I could use the fresh air though."

"Alright." she huffed. "Just don't let me be late."

"You won't be late, I promise." he assured doing a cross his heart motion over his chest. "Don't be so paranoid."

She swatted him before going out the door with her things. Ash only laughed at her in response and followed her out closing the locked door behind him.

"So," he asked. "Any cute guys in your class?"

"What?!" her head whipped around to look at him. "No! Not for you! Besides what part of terrible horrible icky vampire warding type of establishment do you not understand. It has anti Ash written all over it. Or, have we turned a new leaf since."

"Maybe." Ash said with a dreamy grin.

"Oh lord. Come on." Serena grabbed her brother and yanked him along.

They began to walk down the sidewalk at a gentle pace. She supposed that she could miss the first bus if she had to seeing as they ran on the half hour. She'd just be cutting it close to class. They were a good couple blocks away by the time Ash decided to speak up.

"Such a great morning." he said breathing in the fresh air deeply.

"Yeah, it kinda is isn't it?" Serena more mused to herself than asking a question.

"Well my day might be at least looking a bit up then." he said with a smile.

"Why is that?" she said giving a confused face.

"Oh I don't know, just…feels like it will." he shrugged, his cane sliding across the ground a gliding scrape fashion. He then looked in Serena's direction and tilted his head a moment before looking back straight forward, "Huh?"

"What?" she asked.

"Oh nothing." he said dismissively, he clearly didn't want to get into a debate over what he was thinking.

"Come on, it's not just nothing, it's something." Serena pressed on.

"Well, I just, I couldn't help but notice you weren't using yours." Ash stated nonchalantly.

"Using what?" she stated just a tad blond.

"Your cane," he offered. "I heard you were supposed to have one by now from mom and dad. I'm surprised you're not."

"Well, I, um," she began. "I don't need to use it right now."

"Again all I am hearing is blah blah blah internalized ableism." he scoffed. "You may or may not need it, but overall wouldn't it be better to be safe than sorry? Besides, once you start, you can eventually deck out yours."

He held up the cane he had, "Like mine."

His cane was a sort of smoky black with bright red reflective on it. It looked a bit like something straight out of Tron to be honest in design and at night the red would light up for cars to see easily. It was clear Ash was at least more comfortable with his position in life than his sister was. However, he had more years to perfect that in any case.

"To be honest," he continued. "This actually I think is handier in a place like this, than probably the standard white one you got. Especially in the winter. Mine at least won't blend in with snow like yours will."

"I wouldn't doubt it." Serena grumped. "It's just, I don't know. I'm not used to it. I don't like how it takes up one of my hands. Or how it makes me feel self-consciously. And yeah it doesn't look appeasing or fashionable. No one looks at a cane and says this could be fifty percent cooler. Or the person wielding it is still even human. It's like…it's like they equate cane to dumb or….gods forbid…alien. It's like you practically live in a whole different dimension from the rest of the world the moment you pick up one of them things."

"I know, I was there once too myself you know. It's just, the only way you're going to face it, is if you do it head on. You can't run from it forever. Sometimes the only way out is through. Besides, what's so wrong with being alien? Normality is over rated a boring. Anyway, once you stop running from your disability," he did air quotes to emphasize disability, "Or even thinking about it as such. You can learn to turn it into a strength and even make it work for you. Observe."

At that moment he looked vaguely around trying to find a way to prove a point, "The light ahead of us is still red, we are literally twenty paces from the last curb, someone across the street just gave a pan handling dude on the street corner forty five….no wait…..sixty eight cents. I smell deli chicken and deasil, so I'm sure were near a gas station. Need I go…"

He stopped, his gaze became distant as he finished his last word, "…on."

Serena was about to speak but Ash stopped her with a gesture as he cocked his head again to the side, listening.

"Do you hear that?" he said almost as if he were trying to whisper.

"Hear what? I hear traffic, and the wind. Maybe a chime from a house." she offered.

"No, not that." he stated vaguely. "Something….something else. Something more…rhythmic?"

"Nope, sorry." Serena shrugged.

"What is that noise?" Ash really wanted to know.

"I don't know, maybe the rocks finally coming loose in your head?" she teased.

"Oh hah, hah. No, this is too rhythmical. More like, an uneven washer….or drum beat, or something else that can keep a steady rhythm. Like very steady, not even the slightest variation."

He began to tap out the rhythm with the tip of his cane, the beat of it going ratta, tat, tat, tat in a one, two, three, four motion with only the slightest pause in between four and one. Serena gave him a weird stare.

"It's getting closer." he breathed. "Louder."

"Come on, never mind. Don't worry about it. I still have a bus to catch you know." she stated trying to drag him off towards the bus.

"No, wait, it'll only take a minute. I think it's over that way ish." he pointed towards the gas station.

"You don't have to prove to me your Daredevil okay. You made your point." Serena insisted.

"No, seriously!" he urged, really wanting to know what that sound was, practically OCD level of curiosity, He then bolted without her. "I mean it, it'll only be just a moment! Haven't you ever just wanted to know something! Had to know the answer!"

Exasperated, Serena shrugged a full armed "okay", before trailing after her brother who was already way ahead of her, trying to get to the gas station itself. Why her brother insisted on finding the source of a sound she wasn't quite certain. However, the sound seemed vaguely familiar, and if she hadn't been so stressed out, she was sure she would have been able to put a placement on the rhythm her brother had drummed out. Eventually she caught up to him just as he was at the door to the café part of the gas station. Ash just stood there, trying to find the source of the sound.

"I swear, it was just right there!" he exclaimed, more to himself than to Serena or anyone else. "Right there, like plain in my face there! And now….ugh! Fine, let's go catch your stupid bus."

"Ahhh, no." she stated wearily. "You managed to drag me all the way over here, so no, now we are going to go inside and you are going to get me that coffee mister."

"Fine." he mopped and gave a dramatic look as he was pulled inside by his sister. The scent of coffee beans filled the air, a very much welcomed scent in Serena's case.

"Oh stop mopping." she said as she looked back at him to make sure he got through the door, but when she did, she hadn't been paying attention to where she was going and ended up tripping on the yellow CAUTION sign that was left in the middle of the walkway, which made her not only squeak out as she began to fall, but also made her let go of her brother all at the same time. Her blood rushed as she was certain she was going to go full plant the floor, possibly face and all, until she didn't.

Before she could even get fully to her knees something stopped her decent. A pair of arms had grabbed her practically under her own arms and held her there long enough for her to register that she was no longer descending. Those same arms helped her stand back up. Heat flushed to her face as she felt super embarrassed. Of course her brother had heard the ruckus and was halfway between wanting to laugh at her sister's demise and be worried all at once.

"You should be more careful." a voice aged, foreign, and male in tone said briskly. "You alright though?"

"Yeah, um, thanks." Serena stated as the man let her go. She then stared with a glare down at the toppled over sign, "Stupid wet floor sign."

Serena's brother then couldn't help but bust out laughing a little in a snicker fit. Serena shot him a dirty look, which if he wasn't so sensitive to the world around him, wouldn't have reacted with a "shutting up" face as her eyes pierce right through him like lasers.

"You alright Serena?" Ash genuine asked this time.

"Yeah fine, thanks to this kind gentleman." she stated.

"Oh, cool. Yeah thanks dude." he stated with a nod in the older man's direction.

"Not a problem." the man stated, his accent sort of thick.

"Yes thank you, again. Anyway, Ash come on, you and I still got coffee to get, and me a bus to catch. It's not like I can just teleport to class." she urged not wanting to take up anymore of the man's time that she had run into.

"Oh come on! Can't I just-" he was cut off.

"No." she stated.

"But-" he insisted.

"No!" she stated with exasperation as she tried so hard to get him to follow her to get in line to get coffee, he wasn't quite budging though.

"Dude! Can't I just take five second to thank the man who just saved you from eating tile? Besides, the dudes got a killer accent! Very classy for Great Falls." he pouted, then held out a hand for the other man to take. "Nice to meet you."

The older gentleman raised a brow at them, but put his own hand out anyway to clasp Ash's in a quick but firm handshake. The moment Ash made contact with the other man's hand, he found the same rhythm he had before, but this time he felt it too. That same ratta, tat, tat, tat beat. It made Ash tilt his head with curiosity as well as slight concern. To him it didn't seem normal. Lips pressed into a frown he looked up in the general direction of the other man's face, "You should get that checked."

The other man's gaze was one of confusion. Again he raised a silvered brow at the younger gentleman, "What?"

"Your heart." he stated in that same sort of distant vague tone he got when he was laser focused on something faint or distant.

"What about it?" the older man stated his accent flittering in and out with ease.

"It's….murmuring." he gave with careless thought of the fact that the man before him was a stranger as far as he was concerned. "Kinda like this."

He tapped his cane again, the same rhythm as before. This somehow made the other man's face go white as a sheet and he put a free hand on top of Ash's to stop him from tapping his cane like that. The gentleman gave a look of stop doing that, but when Ash didn't respond to the stare, he could only assume he couldn't see it probably and said instead, "I'll….look into it."

"Okay time to go!" Serena stated grabbing Ash by the shoulders this time and dragging him away. "Sorry about my brother, he's had a rough week. It was lovely meeting you!"

"Serena!" he proclaimed and fussed until they were in line to order. "What was that for!?"

"To keep you from further embarrassing yourself!" she hissed and then looked over at the man who was still standing there, apparently waiting for his own coffee, and was looking at them. Her cheeks burned again and she looked back at her brother.

"More like embarrass you. I was perfectly fine!" he grumped.

"Right, and you didn't sound two bananas away from a blended shake. Nope not at all." her gaze was hard and piercing.

"Dude, easy on the lasers, I think you might be burning a hole through my clothes." he scoffed, trying to make the mood lighter. It wasn't working though and he hung his head in defeat. "I'm sorry. Please don't be mad."

She tried so hard to keep a stoic face, but seeing her brother with such pathetic eyes at her made her power of rawr turn into power of meh in less than sixty seconds, "I'm not mad, dork."

Serena put an arm around her brother as they waited to get their orders. The other gentleman who had saved her from eating floor must have gotten his in the time it had took for them to get theirs ordered, because by the time Serena looked again, he was gone.

"So coffee?" Ash asked going back to being happy again, knowing his puppy face had worked.

"Yeah coffee." Serena shook her head and laughed as they ordered. She look over towards the door in thought. Maybe her brother was right, maybe the day was going to look up, even if it was only just a little. All she knew was she had this strange gut feeling this was at least going to be an unusual day. She didn't know how, but she had a feeling it was going to be something different.

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Doctor Who or its canon. Only the original characters and original content are mine.  
**

 **A/N: I'm sure its easy to guess who the gentleman is that Ash and Serena ran into. However, I'm giving away no spoilers meh heh heh, so if you haven't guessed yet, you'll just have to wait and see. Anyway, loved writing this chapter, one of my roommates who's been doing Ash head canon for me has been a really great help at getting Ash and Serena's dynamic down. In any case, hope you enjoyed! Please read and review!**


	5. Hide and Seek

_**Meanwhile…**_

The man who was seen inside the coffee shop, now could be seen by the world itself leaving it at a very steady pace, coffee in hand and a determined look on their aged face. What was most peculiar about them, was that their clothing seemed very out of style for such a less classy place to get something to drink. This did not seem to bother them, however, as they walked away.

What the two that were left behind in the cafe did not realize was that this man was someone that at least one of them knew very well. Not in a personal sense per say, but a clear and understandable one at least. The only problem was, neither of them could see his face clearly to distinguish the details. If only the elder gentleman knew the sort of position he had gotten himself into. He'd have probably ran for the hills and not looked back with the sort of attention he'd end up getting. Luckily for him this was a smaller town in a nowhere state that it made getting lost in the space of it all, very easy. One would think that, that wouldn't be possible, but for his sake it was a strong blessing. Not that he realized that of course as he made his way back to his home.

Approaching, he unlock the blue door before him and pressed with an open faced palm against its wooden etched surface. It swung inward with a creek before he stepped through its straight edged arch and closed it with a light rattling click behind him. By any standard it should have been impossible for him to find any comfort whatsoever behind that door, if one were took look at it from its outside perspective, which seemed dimensional crapped for even a single person to find soloist in. However, if one were to enter inside, just like he had, they'd have found the impossible more than grandly over assumed.

In fact the whole interior was big enough just in the few steps alone to get inside, for two people to walk comfortably elbow to elbow next to each other without so much as a bump into one another in between them. The rest of the room, when one got over the sheer shock of the initial entrance, would notice just how cavernous the rest of it was. It wasn't just one floor, but multiple, with what looked like a circular platform with an encased beam of light, a control panel surrounding it, and it jutting up to a very much high rotating ceiling all the way down to just under its wire meshed floor. Of course circular panels lined the walls and accented lights surrounded everywhere for a more dramatic effect. To the nonresident this would be something of a shock of awe seeing such grandiose, but to a simple old, very much mad, man in a silly blue nonsense making box; it was much more a home away from home.

Not even hesitating, he walked up to where the controls were and looked at them, coffee still in hand. With a free hand he grabbed the screen and whirled it towards himself to look at what was on it. It was still working on repairing itself, his home that was, the TARDIS. Yes, that silly old man was none other than the Doctor himself. His tired twelfth face, looking over the information of how things were coming along before giving a weary sigh. Taking a step back, he took a drink of his coffee and paced.

"This is all your fault you know." he said to what seemed like nothing in particular. "You got us into this mess somehow so, it justifies my reasons for not feeling sorry for you right now."

A moment of silence, and then a sound of whoops, blips, and other light chirping sorts of sounds the TARDIS could make came ringing through the room. To the normal ear this would seem like nothing, just normal ship noise, but the Doctor knew better. He could tell that his girl was pouting. As she should, was his thoughts. The TARDIS nearly had an internal meltdown conniption fit just getting where they were. Though, in the older time lord's mind it could have been worse he supposed. He was just glad she had landed on Earth, early twenty first century, something he knew quite well at this point. So he wouldn't be bruised at his TARDIS for long.

As was, there was already something to do. A mystery to solve. Perhaps that was why he was more in a mood than actually being mad at his girl for almost nearly frying herself. The Doctor never screwed up so badly, not that often. Yet the night before seemed like quite a disaster as he was trying to recall the details to put them together as he paced about, sipping slightly at his coffee every few seconds.

 ** _The night before…_**

Cloister bells going off, the TARDIS had wheezed and landed with a hard thud. The Doctor, having waved off smoke that had started emanating from the control panels, tried to see where they had ended up. Unfortunately the screen had been black out at the moment. Stupid, stupid, stupid, was all the Doctor could think of. Something had gone completely wrong with their travel through the time vortex.

Sure he had picked up a reading of something strange, but that shouldn't have caused the TARDIS to go haywire like she had. No there was something more to this, but the Doctor couldn't put his finger on just what quite yet. He especially couldn't with the TARDIS's mainframe down. She had immediately gone into repair mode as soon as they landed. He was just going to have to do this search more the old fashioned way he supposed.

Going swiftly, he went and grabbed a special device from within one of his many hidy drawers. He was going to go out into the open world armed with a searching tool and his own time lord intuition to find out why they ended up in such a messy predicament.

"Don't you dare go anywhere, you hear me?" he spoke sternly to the TARDIS. "You better still be here when I get back. I don't care if you have to do repairs you can stay put."

He was in a bit of a grumpy mood, but nothing too serious. Nothing that wouldn't go away after a few hours of some fresh adventurous air. Tucking the device close to his chest and making sure his sonic screwdriver was well in his pocket, he made his way to go out the TARDIS door. The poor girl only made a few pathetic whirring blip sounds of what seemed like dizzy induced understanding before she could sense him close the door behind him and walk away from her.

The Doctor was now a man on a mission. Before even turning on his device he was able to at least gauge the planet, the century, and almost up to the month and day he was in. He could practically gauge even where he was in proportion to where he was on the planet, just by his time lore senses alone.

The sun was just passing down to the horizon where it would fade into a lovely TARDIS blue skyline before its light vanish for the evening. The air he had taken note of, was sweet in taste, grassy and wild. It almost made him think of home just a bit. But, he couldn't dwell on such a thought, there was work to be done. Taking out the device again, he turned it on and began scanning the area with it and his sonic screwdriver. There was definitely something strange. He could even say temporally odd.

Yet what intrigued him more, was that his readings just around the area of the TARDIS, weren't the only ones he was getting. There was more. There was something, or maybe even someone or ones, here. Other than just plain simple humans. Actual alien activity there other than himself. This, he was going to have to definitely investigate. As he watched the screen, the readings were telling him that they were the strongest coming from what looked like a very downtown area of this city.

Only geared with his own feet, he began walking at a very fast pace towards where the signals were coming from. By this point, the sky had gone dark, and the only light he was able to go by was the ones the streets provided, which unfortunately really wasn't much. However, he didn't need much to keep up with what he was doing.

Most of the town, he was starting to realize, seemed quite quiet for the most part. The Doctor didn't know how to take this really, the eerie silence of it all, so he tried hard not to focus on it. It didn't help that he jumped, however, the moment he heard what sounded like a scream nearby, and by the time he reach the area known as downtown central he could hear it even louder. Naturally his caring and curious nature, made him pick up his pace and run towards the sounds that he had heard.

By the time he had gotten there though, the scene before him was one he did not want to see, helplessness. Before him a girl and a guy were standing in front of another man, their postures threatening. They were attempting to bully the poor guy. The Doctor stood there momentarily frozen in shock (and maybe a bit intrigue) as the girl just watched the other man approach the frightened individual cowering against a wall. It was then that man started to do something unnatural, very alien in fact. From what the Doctor could see was a sort of light emanating from the attacker and dissolving into the victim, which seemed to leave the victim to seem like they were being drained like a battery. This motion was what prompted the Doctor to take action.

"Hey!" the Doctor, finally snapped out of his temporary haze, and began running towards them at full tilt. Anger started spreading all over his face as he called out again in warning, "Hey!"

The two who had been ganging up on the terrified man, turned to look at the Doctor as he came barreling down on them. Frightened at seeing such a sight and the thought of possibly being caught, they began to take off just as the Doctor reached the now slumped man who was out cold by this point. Quickly he had reached down to test the man's pulse fearing the worst as he looked up watching the direction the other two were running. Unfortunately the man as far as he could tell, was dead. A solemn look etched his lips. The Doctor got back up quickly, backing away from the man with regret before he turned and full force running after them. He mused in a fanciful belief that his ability to run fast would be a hope to catch up to the alien culprits.

Sadly he did not catch them or catch even up to them at all for that matter. All this did was make him sigh with frustration as he gripped at his hair roughly, eyes darting about searching as he turned in a three sixty in one spot. He wondered to himself if he was actually just getting to old for this nonsense. Defeated, he slouched back to go find the man hoping against all reason he had been wrong and actually had saved the man from such a fate as death, but by the time he got there he found an even bigger shock, disappointment, and frustration. The body was gone! Which meant whoever, whatever those things where, their victim somehow just managed to come back to life and walk away. Luckily for him, the man's face was etched into the back of his mind and that if he had to see them again, he'd know that whoever they were, their definitely most likely at this point dangerous.

Even though he was left in a state of frustration, he was also in a state of exhilaration. There was something to do, a consolation prize to the fact him and the TARDIS pretty much crash landed. Armed with this knowledge, he made his way back in the direction of his TARDIS, a cold stare on his face and a determined step to his walk. They weren't going to get away with this, whoever they were, because now…the Doctor was in.

 _ **Back to the present…**_

His mind reeled over the situation, over and over again. He was at a loss though, that fire he had hours before now extinguished with tired weary headache filled thoughts. There was definitely something he was missing. Something huge, but with so little facts, it made things quite hard. Taking another sip of coffee he tried to recall more of what had already transpired. Of course there was a bit of domestic things, like going to get coffee at the coffee shop.

He didn't have to do that, not really he could have gone to the kitchen to grab a cup, but somehow taking the domestic approach felt more right for some odd reason. It sort of made him smirk to himself slightly. Oh if only Rose could see him now, she'd be making loads of fun pokes at his approaches to things these days compared to back then. People change, even him.

He drew his ever quickly cooling cup of coffee to his lips as he passed around the massive control room at least part way before stopping and looking at the controls solemnly. He was glad that part of her was working again. Yet, it was like, there was a certain nagging at the back of his mind when he looked at them these days. One that if he only just had access to, he'd probably look back on fondly, but alas it was just that, a distant unattainable thought. At least for the most part. There always seemed to be this feeling though, this sort of "I told you so" or "go on do it" sort of vibe he'd get and it always seemed to push him on, but in the end there was always still something missing, something that felt like it sat between his two hearts and almost wanted to wretch them both out like a gaping hole.

Even as he moved up to the panel in front of him and flicked a lever on it, he felt that deep hole aching at him. What he didn't realize was, what it was, was the fact that the TARDIS aside from her sentient self, was empty. The Doctor could have had all the rooms in the multiverse he wanted, but that wouldn't ever make up for the missing thing that he wanted most right then. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately depending on how one saw things he couldn't remember it anyway. So all he was left with was only the feelings, ones that seemed to keep telling him to keep going.

After the switch was flipped a map came up on the rotatable screen. It was a map of the local area. This allowed him to try and contemplate better where the aliens might have gone, possibly locations they'd hide out at out of habit. Most of the collected info so far located things mostly downtown. There had seemed to be a lot of abandoned places down there so probably it was one of the best bets. He could have thought maybe they had plans for the base that seemed to be located in town he was sure that might become their next target so they could eventually get out of there or even try and take control of earth at least. He had to stop whatever they were though none the less from harming anyone again.

Brows furrowed he downed more of his coffee, frustration filling him again. In his mind he then heard that little voice going off again like a memory. _You know you want to. Just do it already. Go on, get out there. What are you waiting for? You're surely not gonna save the day wallowing about in here. So go on…run you clever man…run like you never have before._

He finished off this drink at that point, downing it fast, and then throwing it over his shoulder as he turned away from the screen, it luckily landing in a waste bin near a chair he had about in the control room, "This is ridiculous!"

It was like he was trying to exclaim it to someone, but he was the only one there. His words fell on deaf ears. He looked to the ceiling, "What am I supposed to do!?"

He then looked down and said more quietly his accent carrying just a hair thicker as he covered his face, "What…..am I supposed to do…."

Tears almost threatened to rush from his eyes, though a part of him didn't even understand why. He didn't let any fall though. Instead, he ran his hands down his face and turned with a more hurt stare into the nothing in front of him, "If you think I'm so clever then what should I do!?"

Almost as if whatever he was trying to talk to responded that or just the universe mocked, a sound went off on his console, indicating there was activity again. He looked at it almost in genuine bewilderment before racing over to the screen to get a better view of what the TARDIS instruments were reporting. There was definitely something. He had to go back out there. He had to find the answers. The voice in his mind was right, whether he liked to admit that or not. He had to do something. Even if his stubborn, now Scottish esque, pride was getting the better of him.

"Alright…." he stated backing away from the console, grabbing his things he had from the night before and began to get ready to leave the TARDIS once more. "Alright."

He made sure he had everything before he went to the door itself, and then turned back to the TARDIS core at the center of the room, "You know….I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do."

The TARDIS beeped, whirled, and blooped a bit in response as if to say "Yes, yes now get out of here my thief." to him. He then turned and dashed out the door, locking it behind him as he made his way to where the signal had been emanating from. He would make this right somehow. Even if he had to scour the whole city he'd find them and make it right.

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Doctor Who or its canon. Only the original characters and original content are mine.**

 **A/N: Sorry that getting this chapter out came so late! i lost track of time (much like the Doctor does often) I guess. In any case, hope you guys enjoy the introspective on the 12th Doctor. Told you he'd be wandering in eventually! Anyway, I was able to get this chapter and one other done that will be posted with this one. Everyone have a great New Year!**


	6. It's A Trap

Serena had made it too school for the day, and of course it was as routine as most other days. However, there were thoughts that had been lingering at the back of her mind. Things that her brother had said earlier that morning and just things about the incident at the café. She had to shrug them off as best as possible though to get through the classes she was in. It wasn't easy, however, and she seemed very much distracted as she listened to lecture.

She was lucky she didn't get called on for anything seeing as her mind wasn't there in the present. It felt like the hours could have poured on like a slow stream of quick sand for all she cared. How could someone even think about classes when something more intriguing caught her attention? It was the big sky no man land state for heaven's sake nothing interested ever happened! Yet it had, and as much as she wanted to deny such facts, she couldn't escape the obvious and it was killing her inside. Even as lunch had rolled around she still couldn't seem to get out of her funk state of thought.

While she was trying to read one of her text books, however, a voice broke the chaos that was here mind. It made her jump a bit as she looked up to see who had caught her attention. Before her, one of her classmates stood staring at her waiting to see if she'd respond. He was a decent looking man, one that many a girl wouldn't mind going with if given the chance. Sadly though since losing a decent portion of her sight, she couldn't even fully tell if he was giving one of them flirtatious stares or not. She smiled in any case, just so she didn't seem unfriendly.

"Oh, hi." she offered.

"Hey." the man stated as he still stood there. "I was wondering if I could sit with you and eat. Maybe talk shop about class or something. It doesn't have to be class."

"Uh, sure." Serena pushed some hair out of her face. Luckily by this point she was able to put a name to the voices she got to hear. She could tell that this particular one was Jordan. What she didn't know, however, was who Jordan really was. She didn't know that anything had happened to him the night before. So she was oblivious to the danger she potentially was in even right then and there. It wasn't her fault of course, she wasn't a mind reader and she had no idea the guy was out last night.

"Great." he stated, sitting down across from her, setting his bag down. There was a smile on the man's face, but it was uncertain the intention of that smile. "So, history was a bore today, don't you think? Honestly, I don't understand half the reason we have to read all these books we have. It's kinda stupid when you think about it. There is no way anyone could read, research, and write papers on eight separate reads over the course of a quarter. The professor has got to be out of his mind."

"Yeah." Serena stated looking sort of down, his words sort of cutting unintentionally like a fire heated knife through her. He caught the embarrassed look.

"Oh I'm sorry, that was rude to start off like that." he offered. "Sometimes my mouth just wanders as if it has a mind of its own."

"Eh." she stated a bit more solemnly, this good meet up was feeling a bit like it was kind of going sour already.

"Um…." the man rubbed the back of his neck a bit. "Yeah sorry. Seriously. I'd say I understand, but….I don't."

"It's okay." she sighed fiddling a bit with the page in front of her and then looked at him. "Your right, the professor is a hard ass, and just a bit crazy if he thinks anyone can get through that class of his. I know I'm going to fail it, I just don't have the speed to read and do the rest all at once. And he refuses to give anyone extra time to do so, so."

"That's not true. I'm sure you can get through it. I know this is probably going to come off wrong, but I think you got the inner strength to do it." he stated, already seeming like he was regretting what he said. The man was being smooth, that was for sure, or at least trying anyway. It would seem like there was nothing wrong with him at all.

"Yeah that was bad," Serena cringed a bit, she couldn't tell if he was suggesting her impairment which she didn't usually try to show outwardly, or if it was a "because you're a girl" card that he was trying to pull. Either way it was off putting. "But I get it."

"Maybe….," it sounded like Jordan was thinking about something very hard. "Maybe we could help each other. I can catch you up on reading and you can maybe get me through some of the over my head jargon the books seem to pose."

"You can't be serious?" she looked taken aback with a bit of astonishment. No one usually ever asked to help her first. She usually had to beg others relentlessly before they'd help her. And it was even more uncommon that folks would first ask her for help, so inevitably this made her actually excited about the prospect.

"Yeah, I am serious." he stated and leaned forward a bit, his features coming into a clearer view for her and it made her turn red just a bit being able to see some better details on his face.

"Okay sure." she finally stated. Serena probably should have been more suspicious of his offer to help but it wasn't like she believed herself to be under any threat. "Maybe we could find time this weekend to hang out and play catch up."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Jordan replied warmly and began to eat his lunch.

They talked about other things of course, movies, sports, politics, anything and everything before their lunch hours were over and they'd both have to run off to their next classes. It was actually turning back into a pleasant conversation again, which was good. By the end they even parted ways going to separate classes with a smile and a hand shake. The rest of the day went by fairly smoothly, the funk fog in her brain now having dissipated finally at the thought of getting help from an actual genuine guy who wanted an interest in her.

By this point, the familiar face of the Doctor entered the main hub of the college. It was as if there were signals all over the place in this facility. However, as he started to gauge, it was going to be like looking for a needle in a hay stack to try and find the direct link to what he was searching for. Frowning, he realized he was going to have to play it cooler here, and less out of the ordinary seeing as there were students still about. Luckily, most paid no mind to him. Perhaps it being a technical college, made him blending in a lot easier. Of course he had to start his search somewhere, and the library seemed like a good place to start. So over to the library he went.

From there, he continued to subtly search about, eventually going from classroom door to classroom door in hopes to locate his target. Sadly it was to no avail. For some reason all the signals seemed to be somehow muddling up within the walls of the college and locations inside it. He surmised it was because it was a busy place and he wasn't completely sure what he was quite looking for really. When he didn't find what he was looking for he went back to the main entrance and stood outside, trying to think, the wind whipping at his aged looking hair. Another dead end and more questions than answers. He watched as people left to go home and come in for later classes go by him, but it was like sitting in a stream with fish floating by there was no reason to care.

Yet that was the problem right there, he should have cared. Because there was one fish in the stream of nobodies, that stood out brighter than the rest. And one other fishy that was going to eat that bright colored fish if he didn't do something about it. That fish was Serena, and its predator was Jordan.

Jordan apparently had already been out in his car waiting, because when Serena walked out of the school, he ended up pulling up in his car just as if it weren't planned at all. She originally was going to try and catch the bus again as was per usual because they weren't going to meet until the weekend as far as she knew was planned. Nothing of outstanding interest. However, the moment the car pulled up and the window rolled down and Jordan began to speak to Serena, is the same moment that the Doctor took notice to his device that was going really crazy. It was here, outside. He stared at the screen then looked around at the parking lot. Nothing seemed familiar at first.

"Hey." Jordan called out. "Wanna lift?"

"Oh hey again." Serena blushed. "Yeah sure, beats taking the bus any day."

"Cool." He patted at the seat next to his. "Hop in."

Serena did just that, and as she did, it then hit the Doctor as his eyes crossed paths with Jordan's face finally, that he had found what he was looking for just as Serena closed the door behind her.

"No, no, no, no." he stated frantically to himself and then called out. "Hey! Hey wait!"

Jordan caught sight of the Doctor though and glared with an almost vicious smile on his face at him, rolling up the window. Serena looked over at The Doctor as he did that.

"Maybe we should see what he wants?" Serena offered.

"Nah it's probably just one of the professors or some older student trying to get someone else's attention. Don't worry about it." he stated quickly and began to drive off.

"Okay…" she stated putting her belt on, sort of not actually sure.

"Hey I got an idea, why don't you and I go hang out for a little while. Could go get something to eat maybe. What do you say?" Jordan said trying to deliberately distract her from the previous frantic calling Doctor who was trying to get her attention.

"Um…" she hesitated.

"Come on, I promise I won't make it weird or anything." he pleaded.

"Well…" she was so torn. A part of her needed to get back home to make sure her brother hadn't wrecked the place and she had homework to do on the other hand this guy was probably asking her on a date.

"I mean if it's too soon to hang out you know….I could always take you home." Jordan said, a wounded glance crossing over his features.

"No! ...I mean, okay. About food." she suddenly blurted out her heart sort of pounding in her chest. "Let's do it. Let's go hang out."

"Really?" his face went quickly from pathetic to glowing.

"Yeah really." she said, giving him a genuine smile. "Just…let me text my doofus brother. He's kinda in town for a while."

She opened the screen on her phone and sent out a text saying, Hey going out for a few hours with a friend I'll be back later tonight. She then let the phone go to black screen until her brother possibly responded if he wasn't busy doing something she should wonder about.

"Oh, is he someone I'll have to worry about pummeling me for taking there sister out for a dinner?" he teased a bit.

 ** _Is he cute?_** , was the response she got in text from her brother. She turned red as a beat before responding to him.

 _ **Shut up. I never said it was a he**_ , she hastily texted back and then said, "Um, no. Hah, he's more like a chill cat. Just give him a bit of cat nip and he's good."

"Haha, sounds entertaining." Jordan jested. "I can only imagine."

"Yeah," she ran a hand through her hair as she brushed a strand out of her face. "Well, he'll be fine for at least a few hours without me. After all he did sort of show up uninvited and unannounced a bit."

"Well that doesn't seem very nice." Jordan stated giving her a glance as he drove.

"Not really, but he's my brother and I wouldn't replace the crazy numb nut for the world." Serena said with a chuckle.

"Fair enough. So, where would you like to go?" he asked.

"I don't know, there's not too many places to hang in town, at least none that I know of anyway." she admitted.

"True." Jordan agreed. "I think I know of a couple, but that depends on what you're into."

"You're asking me what I'm into," she laughed. "Bub, you're in for a whooper on that one. I pretty much like anything and everything food wise. So that won't make choosing any easier."

"Haha, okay well then, what are you craving. Like right now." he asked.

"Right now?" she mused. "Hmmm, good old fashion sit down. Like Tracy's. I'd say Fifth Street, but their closed after three p.m., which sucks to be honest because they got the best milkshakes. The only other place that could compete is Ford's drive in and ugh, they are the only place that makes green river soda milkshakes in town too! You can get the soda by the gallon I think at that. Quite a deal if you ask me. But Tracy's would be great as long as they're not closed too. They've been getting some funky hours themselves lately. That whole downtown area has pretty well gone to the dogs sadly, aside from bars."

"Huh, well if the food joints closed we could just get a simple drink or something and call it good." he stated. "No pressure necessary."

"Sure." Serena smiled.

"Great, we'll try Tracy's first, and if all else fails we can find a pub or bar so we can get a drink and maybe a snack at least." Jordan assured. They were now heading well into downtown after having crossed the big highway that burrowed through a good portion of the south side of the town. Two hundred also known as Tenth Avenue was only one of two major roads in or out of town. They, however, were headed down to Central. The place where the whole situation had originated from.

It wasn't like Serena knew. She like every other human being on the planet, was about as oblivious to what strange things could be around her as the next person. She was with Jordan, she believed she'd be just fine. Nothing out of the ordinary about a hook up. Luckily, Tracy's was open and they were able to go in and get themselves some food and a cup of coffee. They even continued to talk about classes and other casual things. What had been a very stressful day, had as far as Serena was concerned at the moment turned into a very pleasant afternoon out of the house. She just hoped her brother wouldn't cause chaos while she was out.

About almost an hour or two later of eating, drinking, and talking the time away; they both finally left the small diner together, both happy and full from they're meet up. Jordan gave her a casually wry smile before asking, "So, I can either take you home right away or we could sit in the car for a bit, maybe cruise around the area before I take you back."

"I don't mind sitting and vegging. After all it seems we have plenty of things to talk about." Serena mused.

"That we do." Jordan gave a short chuckle. "Well then my lady shall we head back to my noble steed –I mean car so we can veg as you say."

"Lead on, good sir." she said warmly. Her eyes that were already tired a bit from a day's hard work of strain, were now starting to droop from falling into a slight food coma. They went to the car, and he even opened the door for her. Getting in, she let herself just flop back in the seat as Jordan closed the door beside her. He then got in himself on the driver's side and closed the door behind him. The car now filled with a momentary silence.

Jordan had parked not too far from Tracy's, but it wasn't on the same black as it. They were still on central, just a few blocks down from where they were eating. The sky now dark, it was noticeable that people were now gone from the area. Work was over, and so most folks had already gone home. However, that didn't mean there wasn't anyone down there other than them. Just not as many. It was another few long moments of vegging status before Jordan finally spoke.

"You know," he began. "I think people have under estimated you."

"Hmm?" she said a bit dreamily looking out half opened eyes at him. "How's that?"

"You just, you're a totally different person face to face, than you are in school. You not as…distant, I guess." he offered with a shrug.

"I suppose that makes sense." she mused.

"You're livelier, chattier, and open ya know." Jordan rambled off.

"Glad to know." she said smiling before looking back out the front window. "I always thought I kinda sucked at socializing."

"Nah, to me you talk more like you've done it great for your whole life." he smirked.

"Oh now your just sucking up, I can tell." Serena said getting readjusted in her seat. "I always can tell, my brother does similar sucking up."

"Is that so? Does it still work though?" he mused.

"Eh, sure." she stated lightly. "I'm too full to argue it."

"Fair." he smirked. He then adjusted in his own seat. His body though, was more contorted to the side so he could look at her better. It was visible on his face at the moment that there might have been some genuine interest in Serena. However, after biting at his lower lip lightly in thought of what to do next, there seemed to have been a sudden not so noticeable change in his demeanor. Where a few seconds before he probably would have hesitated to ask what he was about to ask, he sure wasn't now.

"Hey Serena?" he began.

"Yeah?" she looked over at him again, her eyes open so she could stare into his gaze.

He just wanted her attention. Now that he had it, Jordan reached out to her face and began to stroke it before he then pulled her soft features towards himself to go in for what would be "the kill". But, this was no ordinary gesture of affection, because by the moment he got her lips right against his, the true intentions finally came to the forefront. Intimacy of such a fashion usually brought an instant eye lock, but where he thought he'd find a bond in her eyes, he did not. Something was wrong, and Jordan or at least what used to be Jordan, didn't know why. It just wasn't working. This could get very bad for him very quickly. Yet all the same it wasn't like she was pulling away, so he supposed that could make up for the lack of success.

As they parted lips finally though, the creature inside Jordan got worse, angrier. That was when Serena began to notice something was off about him, wrong. Where Jordan's eyes should have been, Serena could begin to see something glowing where they should be, but it was highly unfocused because of her visual acuity. He then began to make a sound that possibly could have been speech, but came out in sounds of clicks and screech's instead, his mouth opening in a very odd elongated sort of way, leaving the inside of his mouth to seem like a disappearing black hole of an abyss, like something straight out of the movie Legion. Even his features began to transform a bit. This made her already back away from him, her heart racing fast.

"J-j-jordan!" she cried out almost is a whispered squeak that should have been more a scream. Without looking she had already been trying to look for the door handle with one hand, and her bag with the other. She wanted so bad to get out of there.

Before either knew it though, the door on the passenger side of Jordan's car was wretched open and Serena, who luckily didn't have a belt on since they hadn't gone anywhere yet, was yanked from the car forcefully by some unknown assailant.

"Let go of me!" she flailed wildly at whoever grabbed her out of the car. It was too dark to tell the features of who had grabbed her, but she could in her rushed moment of fear, tell that they were definitely taller than her, and a bit bigger in build, but not by much. She could hear the door close with a slam even as Jordan had cried out a "Hey!" to them both.

She could tell that she was pulled a few feet away from the car, her bag from school shoved into her arms before the hand that had been closer to her elbow that had pulled her was now set on one of her shoulders while another was set on her other shoulder.

"Are you alrigh'?" a thick, and maybe familiar voice spoke out in a harsh tone to her. "Did he hurt you? Tell me! Did he hurt you?!"

"N-no!" she squeaked out in confusion.

"Are you sure? You're not feeling funny, off, a bit odd?" the man inquired.

"Y-y-yes, I'm sure. Please, just let me go. I can give you whatever you want, just don't hurt me." Serena said palely. She then heard the car turn on and rev up.

"Ahhhhhh! No you don't!" the heavy Scottish brogue man cried out in frustration as he looked over at the car then back at her. "Stay here! Got it!"

All she could do was nod before he went running down the street after the car a bit, hoping to catch it before it could speed up through a light. Alas the light he was hoping that would be red, wasn't. And even with his device he had on hand to meddle with the control of it, it still had not turned red in time. This made The Doctor sigh in frustration before he make a quip one eighty back to where Serena was. Which surprisingly she did just as he said. She could have ran, but a part of her was too terrified for one, and for two, it was dark out. She wouldn't have known her way home from how disoriented she was.

She jumped when he came back up to her on her blind side. She looked down, scared that whomever had taken her, was possibly dangerous. A part of her even flinched when a hand gently touched under her chin and raised up her face to look at him. It had been noticeable now that she had been actually crying from the shock of it all.

"Hey, hey now. Don't cry, I can't stan' cryin'. Breaks me inside you see." The Doctor said more softly now. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. It's just-"

He didn't know if he could explain it to her. Honestly he didn't even know how she managed to get out of that situation in one piece. From his angle, he sure had thought she'd been toast by the creature that was inside Jordan. Yet somehow she survived, but how?

"It's very complicated." he finally managed. "I actually though' you might have been in real danger."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't." she spat back a bit, not intestinally, but it came out that way anyway.

"Okay, I deserve that." he offered, putting his hands in his pockets to try and show he was no threat. He couldn't tell that she couldn't actually see that to tell he was.

"I was fine until you, whoever you are, showed up and scared the ever living daylights out of me." Serena managed, a bit of a fiery spirit returning to her. "You know, for a possible thief or a robber you're really bad at it."

"Wha?" The Doctor scoffed. "You think I'm a- oh heavens! No! I am not a thief! Or a robber. Or anything else related to illicit activity! I genuinely thought you were in trouble!"

"Yes, well now I have no way home." she bit out bitterly, still just from fear.

"Look I'm sorry, 'ow many times do I 'ave to say it!" The Doctor looked to the sky exasperatedly.

"I don't know." she mumbled a bit afraid still of his brazen voice. Scottish people were loud. At least that was the impression she was getting right now.

"Okay, look, if I help get you a ride, will you please forgive me for the mistake?" he pleaded with her.

"Yeah, I supposed." Serena nodded.

"Great! Now, do you have any money, 'cause uh, I don't exactly carry spare cash or card around." The Doctor cringed a bit as clapped his hands together, his bushy brows furrowing.

"I think so, a bit." she frowned, most of her money had been spent on lunch and she usually only carried enough around for the bus usually.

"Well if not, we'll see if someone inside a place might be able to spare you a ride or at least money for one." he offered. "Though I forgot to ask, do you have a phone? We could try and call an uber or a cab or something first?"

"Yeah." she stated taking her phone out, but when she tried to turn it back on, it wouldn't. It was as if the battery was dead or sapped of energy. She could have sworn she had charged it, but to no avail it wouldn't turn on no matter what.

"Ughhhhh, damn it!"

"What?"

"The things dead, as in R.I.P. I need a charger at best stat dead." she groaned.

"Ah, no matter, we can still do the other thing instead." he stated, his voice still hopeful.

"Okay." she nodded, clinging the bag more to her chest. She flinched again when he had put a hand gently on her shoulder once more to comfort her a bit and to turn her to lead her in the right direction to somewhere where they could get her a ride, but he didn't pull away even if she was sure he had thought about it with how the pressure changed against her shoulder blade a few times.

Eventually they had made it to a bar in the area. It was across the street of Central, but at least it was in walking distance. The Doctor lightly urged her to go inside before looking both ways down the sidewalk himself then darting in behind her. He wasn't quite fond of bars, at least not dive ones like this, but at least he could help her get a ride this way and get her out of the open from Jordan possibly returning for her.

He walked up to the bar with her and waited for a tender to come over and help them. The air in the place made The Doctor slightly uneasy, but it could have been worse, it could have been still back outside facing Jordan. Though in his case, he'd rather have been doing that, than being in a bar any day. Finally a tender came over to them while putting a bottle away on a self.

"Hey, how can I help ya?" the man behind the bar asked.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you could help my friend here. Her phones dead and she needs to get a ride home. I'd uh, give her a lift but, ya know….i don't have a car myself you see. So yeah if you wouldn't mind helping a poor lady get a safe ride home I'd be very appreciative."

"Sure." the tender stated. "Not a problem."

As the tender walked off, The Doctor glanced over to Serena who was already frantically digging through her bag for any spare money she might have had left over from lunch. Unfortunately, what she was able to dredge up wasn't quite enough to cover the cab. At least not in cash form. She could have used her card, but she wasn't sure how much she had on it at the moment. Her mind was too frazzled about the situation that had just happened.

"You doin' alright?" The Doctor asked with genuine concern.

"Yeah, just…not enough change." she brooded with a sigh. "Might just have to charge the card instead. Oh well. I don't like using the card, try to keep it for emergencies only, but I guess this counts as an emergency."

"I'd say." the elder man stated leaning against the bar while waiting. Serena looked over at him, trying to gauge his face, but the bar much like outside was just too dark to fully tell features clearly. However, a part of her thought he might have been smiling, not cruelly, but fondly at her. At least she could tell that he was an older gentleman, who seemed to have a very strong possible Scottish background.

"So um, about earlier…." she began.

"Yes?" he raised a brow at her.

"Just wanted to say, I'm sorry." She confessed honestly, now that her heightened fears were starting to slowly subside a bit. The man before her still scared her, but she wasn't in freak out panic mode anymore. "I didn't mean it."

"I know." was all that he said.

"You know? How? I wasn't exactly kind tempered." she stated.

"You're not the first person who's ever gotten cross or hot headed around me." The Doctor stated with a short laugh, remembering back fondly at his past.

"I just, I guess I used the fear I had already started to get with Jorden out on you." Serena stated. "And it wasn't fair."

"Oh?" curious as to what she had meant.

"Yeah. What I saw…" she took a hard gulp in as the images came back to her mind.

"What did you see?" The Doctor asked, a bit concerned now.

"Something happened. He…he somehow changed. Like, his eyes." Serena gestured to her own eyes as she spoke. "I think he, well you're not going to probably believe me, but I think his eyes glowed a bit. And I swore, I swore I saw his mouth open wide up in an unnatural fashion, like a snake, when it unhinges its jaw. It was horrifying. I swear I wasn't hallucinating. I don't do drugs. Gods, why am I even telling you this, you probably are thinking I'm plain out nuts."

"You're not crazy." he stated.

"Oh? How do you know?" she asked. "You weren't there."

"No, but I can't see you being dishonest in a situation as such." he offered. "Plus, I've seen things, things you couldn't possibly imagine. But really I am glad you're safe. Even more so now than ever."

"Okay." she scoffed mockingly a bit as she shoved some things back into her bag, not convinced that he didn't believe she was not some nutter. She watched as the man turned back to the bar impatiently, hoping the tender would arrive soon. In The Doctors opinion he was still not really great with domestic affairs. She wondered who he was, and thought maybe she should ask, but before she could the tender in favor of the The Doctor, arrived to give them word on the cab.

"Alright a cab's been called they should be here in about ten to fifteen minutes." the tender stated.

"That's wonderful." The Doctor said a bit more lightly than he had been. Apparently feeling accomplished at helping her get a way home safely.

"Yay." Serena added tiredly.

"Either of you want a drink in the meantime?" the tender asked.

"Water will be fine." The Doctor stated.

"Same." Serena stated, wanting to feel sober as possible.

The tender went and grabbed them both some water and brought it back promptly. The two of them sat there drinking their waters awkwardly.

"So?" Serena asked.

"So?" The Doctor mirrored.

"I never got your name. Mines Serena." she stated, hoping to get his.

"I," he wasn't sure if he should give out his true identity at the moment or not. Though, there was nothing else he could really go by except his John alias, but he didn't want to do that really. "I am The Doctor."

Serena almost choked on her water and nearly spit it back out when she tried to not die from inhaling it, "Yeah right! And I'm a space princess! Really? Who are you?"

"I just told you." he stated, his voice more serious now.

"No, The Doctor is a fictional character in a tv series. The Doctor cannot be real." she stated and then muttered. "As much as that would be the most awesome thing in the universe."

She couldn't believe it, because she couldn't see that he really was who he said he was.

"But I am!" he breathed softly too her. The comment about him clearly confused him for a moment, but after a second of thought, it began to become clearer to him. He wasn't in his own universe, somehow.

"And like I said, I'm a space princess named Leia." she scoffed a bit.

"Look, I can tell you don't believe me," he had a pleading look on his face. "At least believe this, what you saw, was real. Okay. I know you probably think I'm lying but I'm not."

"No I think you're crazy. Probably right now more crazy than even me." she stated, still not quite believing him. "You're a right mad man you know that."

"Never said I wasn't." he accepted. "Never said I was either. But that's beside the point right now."

"Oh really." she raised a brow of her own at him. "Okay….Doctor….if that really is even who you are. Where's you're TARDIS, and why couldn't you just have taken me home via it hmmm?"

"I-well….," he started a bit flustered by her forthright nature just now. "It's here! Well…not here, here. But it's around! And moreover, it's not quite in walking distance right now. Otherwise, maybe I would have."

"Uh huh….right." she shook her head at him. This guy was all sorts of loon as far as she was concerned. She decided at that point to shoulder her bag and then down her water in almost one go before getting off the stool to leave.

"Well Doctor." she snorted. "I think I'm going to go wait for my ride outside now."

She began to walk away from him and the bar, but was stopped by a hand to her elbow. Her gaze turned back to The Doctor in a "please let me just go" fashion. The look on his face was a pained one though. One that he'd only given to people like Clara or Amy or any one of his other companions. That look of fear that only barely shows through his eyes and lips, a war torn tired caring afraid stare he'd not just share with just any random person, but one he'd started to come to actually like.

"Don't." he stated bluntly. "Just don't."

"Why not?"

"Because."

"That's not good enough excuse mister." Serena said wearily. "I really should go."

"Because he could come back." The Doctor stated honestly. "I have no idea what that being is like that has ahold of your friends body, it could be relentless can return for you when it thinks things are safe again."

"Jordan….he's not my friend." she stated, her cheeks a bit hot.

"Okay boyfriend." The Doctor snarked a bit.

"He's not my boyfriend either!" she said in a bit of a higher tone voice than she expected.

"Does it really matter?" he huffed in irritation a bit.

"No I suppose not, but still, why should I believe you? You just claimed yourself to be the Doctor!" she jabbed.

"Because I am! If going by John Smith or Basil or some other name instead will help you, so be it! But I am who I say I am!" The Doctor blustered, his Scottish brogue coming out heavier than before. Honestly he really wasn't mad. In fact he was glad she questioned him, it meant she was paying attention. It didn't mean he couldn't still be frustrated about it though. Inevitably it made him sigh. "But I mean it, unless the cab's out there, you really shouldn't leave yet. You don't have to believe that I am who I say I am, but you can't go out there blindly not believing that what you saw did not happen. I can see it in your face. The fear actually is still there. I promise you, it's true. At least let me look before you go leaping back out there."

"Is there a problem over here?" the tender asked as he came over while still working.

"No." they both said at the same time and then looked at each other again, their gazes both firm on each other even if Serena couldn't see The Doctors features. The tender shrugged and walked back off.

"Fine." Serena stated, readjusting her pack on her back.

"Thank you." he breathed deeply and let it out.

"Your still mad." she commented.

"Yes," he had to freely admit. "Yes I am."

The Doctor was sure there had been enough time between the call and now for the cab to show he was sure. Unless the service was backed up. Downing his own water, he got up and walked to the door to poke his head out to see if the cab had arrived. At first it had looked like the cab wasn't there, but then a few moments later a car rolled up with a big sign on it declaring it was a cab. The Doctor was very relieved by this. He pulled his head back inside and looked at her, "Alright, you're in luck, it just arrived."

"About time." she stated. "I should be getting home anyway. My brothers going to be wondering what I've gotten up to. Especially now that my phones dead."

"Right." he agreed. "Well, good luck, be safe, and try to stay out of any further danger. Especially Jordan. I don't know if I'll be able to rescue you next time."

"I can take care of myself. I'm good at that." she tried to pass off, it was her internalizing that made her that way.

"Clearly." The Doctor this time was not the convinced one. He still didn't know how she escaped and that bugged him, badly. It was like an itch at the back of his mind that he wanted to find out. There didn't seem to be anything special about her in any way. So what gave?

"See ya around space case." she said giving a bit of a laugh.

He helped by opening the cab door for her, checked inside just in case to make sure not another one of those things was riding the driver. He then just realized, he was going to have to walk back to the TARDIS if he didn't get a ride as well. It would mean more time with Serena, but a part of him actually didn't mind.

"Wait, maybe I should get a ride too." he piped up holding the door. "I mean, I'll have to walk myself otherwise to where I need to go, and it's quite a ways from here to be honest."

"I guess I could spend a few more minutes with your daft face." Serena stated. It was of no consequence to the driver, they'd get paid either way. "Come on, get in."

He gave a half smile and then got in, in the back himself. The cab then took off, luckily in the right direction already. The driver asked for an address. Serena gave hers first, but then The Doctor quipped in that he needed to be dropped off in the park with the plane that was suspended in the air at one of its corners. The driver stated that, that was Lions Park.

This made Serena raise a brow. Was this guy a homeless dude? It made her wonder. To be dropped off in a park seem suspicious. She could see now possibly why he'd not give his real name in her mind. It still didn't make things any less strange though that he'd get dropped off in a park. It was almost Star Trek fourth movie of him. Maybe he really was The Doctor and his TARDIS was parked there. It made her shake her head to think she could believe such nonsense.

The moment the car stopped at the park and The Doctor opened the door to get out, she also too wanted to get out for some reason. Did this guy really have that sort of effect on her? Was she really that stupid to want to try and follow this mysterious man back to wherever it was he was going? She had to be mad herself.

"Goodbye, and good luck Serena." The Doctor stated before fully getting out of the car and then closing the door behind him. A part of him almost sounded like a wounded puppy when he'd said that. A wounded, lonely, scared puppy who just seemed to only want friendship in such a dark universe. It actually made Serena's heart hurt a bit inside as she sat there and watched The Doctor swiftly move away from the car and into the depths of the park. She was about to just let the best thing to ever happen in her life go like it never existed. What was wrong with her?!

Sadly there had been no time for her to bolt from the cab herself to chase after him. Instead she was left putting her hand up to the window and pressed it there, staring at her frowning reflection in the window as the car pulled away from the park. If he really was The Doctor, would she even ever see him again? A part of her wondered. This was not how she'd expected her day to end, not like this.

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 **Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Doctor Who or its canon. Only the original characters and original content are mine.**

 **A/N: Here's to another chapter for the new year! Hopefully the antic's are funny and the suspense dramatic. I myself enjoyed writing it, especially once 12 showed up to save the day. But don't be fooled, Serena's can potentially become a tough cookie if she wants to. Both are just lost, confused, scared, etc. in their own special ways. The Doctor has past he's still not grappling with well and Serena is being speedily thrown into a world she's not familiar with and doesn't exactly know what to believe. Here's hoping both of them will come to some terms with their stuff and be able to come together to solve this alien threat to her world. Again as always read and reviews are welcome!  
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